Wright's article centers around the story of one of Scientology's most famous defectors, a Hollywood screenwriter named Paul Haggis. It also draws a profile of Scientology's leader, David Miscavige, the beaming fellow in the Atlantic advertorial above.

The article describes how Scientology targets and uses celebrities like Tom Cruise to raise money, recruit adherents, and spread its "technology" (teachings). It also notes that David Miscavige's wife disappeared six years ago.

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The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954, by "several devoted followers" of a science-fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard.

In 1950, Hubbard had published a self-help book called "Dianetics," which immediately became a best-seller.

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What exactly IS Dianetics?

Lawrence Wright explains:

"Written in a bluff, quirky style and overrun with footnotes that do little to substantiate its findings, "Dianetics" purports to identify the source of self-destructive behavior—the "reactive mind," a kind of data bank that is filled with traumatic memories called "engrams," and that is the source of nightmares, insecurities, irrational fears, and psychosomatic illnesses. The object of Dianetics is to drain the engrams of their painful, damaging qualities and eliminate the reactive mind, leaving a person "Clear.""

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Hubbard described Dianetics as a "precision science."

"He offered his findings to the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association but was spurned; he subsequently portrayed psychiatry and psychology as demonic competitors."

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"Scientists dismissed Hubbard’s book, but hundreds of Dianetics groups sprang up across the U.S. and abroad. The Church of Scientology was officially founded in Los Angeles in February, 1954"

And so began one of the world's most controversial religions.

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"In 1955, a year after the church’s founding, an affiliated publication urged Scientologists to cultivate celebrities..."

"It is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefiting from it would mention it." At the end of the sixties, the church established its first Celebrity Centre, in Hollywood. (There are now satellites in Paris, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich, Florence, London, New York, Las Vegas, and Nashville.)"

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"Many Hollywood actors were drawn into the church by a friend or by reading “Dianetics”; a surprising number of them, though, came through the Beverly Hills Playhouse..."

For decades, the resident acting coach there was Milton Katselas, and he taught hundreds of future stars, including Ted Danson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and George Clooney."

Katselas was paid a 10% commission by the church on any money donated to Scientology by these celebrities.

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Scientology is pitched as a way for people to improve themselves and their lives--and, by many accounts, it's often successful. Scientology allows adherents to progress through various "levels". The levels involve course-work, counseling, and tasks, for which Scientologists pay through the nose.

Paul Haggis, a screenwriter who recently quit Scientology, estimates that he spent $100,000 on the courses required to progress through Scientology's levels, and $300,000 on other Scientology initiatives. Other former Scientologists say the courses can now cost half-a-million dollars

Haggis now calls Scientology a "cult."

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The first key level that Scientologists try to achieve is a state called "Clear..."

WRIGHT: "The concept comes from "Dianetics"; it is where you start if you want to ascend to the upper peaks of Scientology. A person who becomes Clear is "adaptable to and able to change his environment," Hubbard writes. "His ethical and moral standards are high, his ability to seek and experience pleasure is great. His personality is heightened and he is creative and constructive." Someone who is Clear is less susceptible to disease and is free of neuroses, compulsions, repressions, and psychosomatic illnesses. "The dianetic Clear is to a current normal individual as the current normal is to the severely insane.""

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Eventually, successful Scientologists progress beyond "Clear" to a status known as "Operating Thetan," which has 8 levels of its own. According to Scientology, even Jesus and the Buddha didn't make it that far.

"The church defines an Operating Thetan as "one who can handle things without having to use a body or physical means." An editorial in a 1959 issue of the Scientology magazine Ability notes that "neither Lord Buddha nor Jesus Christ were O.T.s, according to the evidence. They were just a shade above Clear."

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When Paul Haggis, the screenwriter, was trying to achieve the level of "OT III" (Operating Thetan III), he was given secret documents that laid out the foundation of the Scientology religion--as made up by the science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Haggis's reaction upon seeing the documents was that they were "madness." Haggis followed instructions and completed the level anyway.

In 1985, the "scriptures" for the OT III level, the ones Haggis described as "madness," were finally published in a court case:

"A major cause of mankind's problems began 75 million years ago," the [Los Angeles] Times wrote, when the planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of ninety planets under the leadership of a despotic ruler named Xenu. "Then, as now, the materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation." Xenu decided "to take radical measures." The documents explained that surplus beings were transported to volcanoes on Earth. "The documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were dropped on these volcanoes, destroying the people but freeing their spirits—called thetans—which attached themselves to one another in clusters." Those spirits were "trapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol," then "implanted" with "the seed of aberrant behavior." The Times account concluded, "When people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves."

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People who hinder Scientologists' progress through their levels--people who think the church is a wacko cult, for example--are known as "Suppressive Persons."

Scientologists are often forced to "disconnect" from their families, in order to avoid being suppressed.

The church denies this and says anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

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L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986, at the age of 74. Two weeks later, Scientology's new leader appeared...

"Two weeks [after Hubbard's death] Scientologists gathered in the Hollywood Palladium for a special announcement. A young man, David Miscavige, stepped onto the stage. Short, trim, and muscular, with brown hair and sharp features, Miscavige announced to the assembled Scientologists that, for the past six years, Hubbard had been investigating new, higher O.T. levels. "He has now moved on to the next level," Miscavige said. "It's a level beyond anything any of us ever imagined. This level is, in fact, done in an exterior state. Meaning that it is done completely exterior from the body. Thus, at twenty-hundred hours, the twenty-fourth of January, A.D. 36"—that is, thirty-six years after the publication of "Dianetics"—"L. Ron Hubbard discarded the body he had used in this lifetime." Miscavige began clapping, and led the crowd in an ovation, shouting, "Hip hip hooray!""

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At the time, David Miscavige was 25 years old.

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20 years later, when Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes in Italy, David Miscavige was his best man.

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Scientology "defectors" say that David Miscavige has a violent temper and often flies into a rage and assaults underlings. The church denies this.

The St. Petersburg Times published a series of articles about Miscavige's behavior. Wright summarizes it this way:

"Tom De Vocht, a defector who had been a manager at the Clearwater [Florida] spiritual center, told the paper that he, too, had been beaten by Miscavige; he said that from 2003 to 2005 he had witnessed Miscavige striking other staff members as many as a hundred times. Rathbun, Rinder, and De Vocht all admitted that they had engaged in physical violence themselves. "It had become the accepted way of doing things," Rinder said. Amy Scobee [another defector] said that nobody challenged the abuse because people were terrified of Miscavige. Their greatest fear was expulsion: "You don't have any money. You don't have job experience. You don't have anything. And he could put you on the streets and ruin you."

"I asked Hawkins why he hadn't called the police. He reminded me that church members believe that Scientology holds the key to salvation: "Only by going through Scientology will you reach spiritual immortality. You can go from life to life to life without being cognizant of what is going on. If you don't go through Scientology, you're condemned to dying over and over again in ignorance and darkness, never knowing your true nature as a spirit. Nobody who is a believer wants to lose that." Miscavige, Hawkins says, "holds the power of eternal life and death over you."

Moreover, Scientologists are taught to handle internal conflicts within the church's own justice system. Hawkins told me that if a Sea Org member sought outside help he would be punished, either by being declared a Suppressive Person or by being sent off to do manual labor, as Hawkins was made to do after Miscavige beat him."

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About 800 Scientologists, members of the "Sea Org," live at a camp in Southern California called the "Gold Base". They are paid $50 a week. They pledge a "billion years" of service to Scientology in exchange for housing, food, and counseling. Miscavige has an office on the base.

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The church maintains that everyone at Gold Base can leave anytime they want. "Defectors" tell horror stories of how they had to smash through fences in cars to escape, after which they were pursued relentlessly

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The "Sea Org" members who do manage to quit or escape "Gold Base" are presented with a bill for all the room, board, and counseling they got while they were there, which is called a "freeloaders' tab"

"Many Sea Org volunteers find themselves with no viable options for adulthood. If they try to leave, the church presents them with a "freeloader tab" for all the coursework and counseling they have received; the bill can amount to more than a hundred thousand dollars. Payment is required in order to leave in good standing.

"Many of them actually pay it," Haggis said. "They leave, they're ashamed of what they've done, they've got no money, no job history, they're lost, they just disappear." In what seemed like a very unguarded comment, he said, "I would gladly take down the church for that one thing.""

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An FBI investigation of the church began in December 2009, with a focus on "human trafficking" (slavery) at Gold Base. One of the defectors the FBI interviewed described "blow drills" the base security staff used when one of the "volunteers" tried to escape

"[The FBI] also interviewed former Sea Org members in California.

"One of them was Gary Morehead, who had been the head of security at the Gold Base; he left the church in 1996. In February, 2010, he spoke to Whitehill and told her that he had developed a "blow drill" to track down Sea Org members who left Gold Base. "We got wickedly good at it," he says. In thirteen years, he estimates, he and his security team brought more than a hundred Sea Org members back to the base. When emotional, spiritual, or psychological pressure failed to work, Morehead says, physical force was sometimes used to bring escapees back. (The church says that blow drills do not exist.)"

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Sea Org "volunteers" are paid $50 a week. But David Miscavige appears to do quite well...

"Defectors also talked to the F.B.I. about Miscavige's luxurious life style. The law prohibits the head of a tax-exempt organization from enjoying unusual perks or compensation; it's called inurement.

[Scientology spokesman] Tommy Davis refused to disclose how much money Miscavige earns, and the church isn't required to do so, but [defector Marc] Headley and other defectors suggest that Miscavige lives more like a Hollywood star than like the head of a religious organization—flying on chartered jets and wearing shoes custom-made in London.

Claire Headley says that, when she was in Scientology, Miscavige had five stewards and two chefs at his disposal; he also had a large car collection, including a Saleen Mustang, similar to one owned by [Tom] Cruise, and six motorcycles. (The church denies this characterization and "vigorously objects to the suggestion that Church funds inure to the private benefit of Mr. Miscavige.")

Former Sea Org members report that Miscavige receives elaborate birthday and Christmas gifts from Scientology groups around the world. One year, he was given a Vyrus 985 C3 4V, a motorcycle with a retail price of seventy thousand dollars. "These gifts are tokens of love and respect for Mr. Miscavige," Davis informed me.

By contrast, Sea Org members typically receive fifty dollars a week. Often, this stipend is docked for small infractions, such as failing to meet production quotas or skipping scripture-study sessions. According to Janela Webster, who was in the Sea Org for nineteen years before defecting, in 2006, it wasn't unusual for a member to be paid as little as thirteen dollars a week."

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Sea Org volunteers say they painted Tom Cruise's motorcycles for him, customized a Ford Explorer for him, and renovated an airplane hangar for him

"Cruise brought in two motorcycles to be painted, a Triumph and a Honda Rune; the Honda had been given to him by Spielberg after the filming of "War of the Worlds." "The Honda already had a custom paint job by the set designer," Brousseau recalls. Each motorcycle had to be taken apart completely, and all the parts nickel-plated, before it was painted. (The church denies Brousseau's account.)

"Brousseau also says that he helped customize a Ford Excursion S.U.V. that Cruise owned, installing features such as handmade eucalyptus paneling. The customization job was presented to Tom Cruise as a gift from David Miscavige, he said. "I was getting paid fifty dollars a week," he recalls. "And I'm supposed to be working for the betterment of mankind."

Cruise and his attorney say this is all b.s.

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Scientology's top leaders often disappear, usually after running afoul of Miscavige. According to the New Yorker, Miscavige's wife made some decisions Miscavige didn't like. She disappeared.

"Miscavige's official title is chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center, but he dominates the entire organization. His word is absolute, and he imposes his will even on some of the people closest to him.

According to [defectors] Rinder and Brousseau, in June, 2006, while Miscavige was away from the Gold Base, his wife, Shelly, filled several job vacancies without her husband's permission. Soon afterward, she disappeared. Her current status is unknown. [Spokesman] Tommy Davis told me, "I definitely know where she is," but he won't disclose where that is."

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Actress Anne Archer and her husband attribute their professional and relationship success to Scientology, which they describe as teaching "the basic laws of natural life"

"We were friends for about a year and a half before we ever had our first date," Archer said. They were married in 1978. "Our relationship really works," Jastrow said. "We attribute that essentially a hundred per cent to applying Scientology." The two spoke of the techniques that had helped them, such as never being critical of the other and never interrupting.

"This isn't a creed," Archer said. "These are basic natural laws of life." She described Hubbard as "an engineer" who had codified human emotional states, in order to guide people to "feel a zest and a love for life."

I asked them how the controversy surrounding Scientology had affected them. "It hasn't touched me," Archer said. "It's not that I'm not aware of it." She went on, "Scientology is growing. It's in a hundred and sixty-five countries."

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Paul Haggis eventually quit the church after doing an online investigation into it (basically, he read the articles and and watched the videos that Scientologists aren't supposed to read and watch). Haggis's daughters are gay, and the last straw for him was when the church refused to issue a statement saying it was fine with homosexuality

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The reason the church refused to issue this statement, perhaps, is that early versions of L. Ron Hubbard's books described homosexuality as a perversion. The books no longer say this. Church spokesman Tommy Davis says this is because they have now been returned to their original state.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said the words saying homosexuality is a perversion were inserted into L. Ron Hubbard's books by someone else.

Wright:

"Someone inserted words that were not his into literature that was propagated under his name, and that's been corrected now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can only assume that's what happened," Davis said.

After this exchange, I looked at some recent editions that the church had provided me with. On page 125 of "Dianetics," a "sexual pervert" is defined as someone engaging in "homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc." Apparently, the bigot's handiwork was not fully excised."

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The church of Scientology says that L. Ron Hubbard was a war hero and used Scientology teachings to recover from war injuries. The church provided the New Yorker with "original documents" to prove this. The New Yorker got the original original documents from the military. An analyst says the church's documents are forgeries.

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Recently, on the set of his latest movie, Paul Haggis reflected about his life as a Scientologist: “I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t.”

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Those are just some of the amazing things you'll learn about Scientology and Tom Cruise in Lawrence Wright's New Yorker article...